Melody, Halfling Shadowdancer (BGEE part 4)
A series of successful missions did much to raise morale in the party of Melody.
First there was Melicamp. The company saved him from a wolf and provided a skull from a skeleton for Thalantyr the Conjurer to create a spell that would restore the apprentice. Obtaining the skull was no easy feat as the companions were up against a host of skeletons and gnolls. They retreated after a first skeleton was dispatched.
Thalantyr failed at restoring Melicamp, but that was not the fault of Melody or her friends.
On the North Coast they had an intriguing encounter with Jozzi, a Sea Snake disguised as an Aquatic Elf. The creature begged them for help against a small party of Sahuagin attackers. Kivan, speaking on behalf of the party, readily agreed. But they found Jozzi pretty self-reliant.
Such was her prowess in battle that when the Elf Keth'sim Dwin'anea disclosed Jozzi's true nature to the party and her evil deeds (the killing of his brethren), Melody felt disinclined to confront the Sea Snake. There was no need to anyway because Jozzi waded into the sea, where her Sahuagin overlords would surely punish her for sparing the Elf and for slaying the Sahuagin warriors. Keth'sim thanked the company with an enchanted throwing dagger that returned to the wielder's hand. It became Shar-Teel's ranged weapon.
Other succes stories included the dispatching of Sirines and the clearing of Durlag's Tower's upper levels. None of the companions had any fondness for the accursed tower. This mission was undertaken strictly out of financial necessity. And yes, they did leave the place a richer company than they had entered it.
Little was required for any man to get into a fight with Shar-Teel. Near the Firewine Ruins a boastful fellow named Meilum proved no exception to that rule. Melody had somehow developed an affection for her only female companion, and this was mutual. Shar-Teel had been a reliable sellsword and a street smart comrade. She was foul-spoken and almost hostile toward Melody's male companions (or any males they had dealings with), but she respected Melody. The Halfling attributed this not to her fighting prowess, which did not match Shar-Teel's, nor to her gender per se, but rather to her ability to lead a party of male followers.
Shar-Teel battled Meilum in close quarters but was force-fed a slice of humble pie when Quayle had to send in two skeleton warriors to save her hide.
The Gnome fell not much later in an ambush by kobold commandos but the companions had him raised without complaining, for his magical powers had proven their worth to the party more than once. And they would do so again.
One of the party's explorations of the Red Canyons led them to discover the hideout of Bassilus the Murderer, an evil priest with a hefty price on his head. When Melody found and confronted this Bassilus, itching to try a newly acquired Dagger of Venom on the wicked man, the priest cast Hold Person at her. Melody was lucky to swig her invisibility potion right before the spell froze her.
Shar-Teel rushed in to make sure Bassilus had better things to do than to cast detection spells, but she was no match for the buffed priest. It was Quayle's summons, from a wand, that made the party prevail.
The summons also helped the companions defeat three boisterous hobgoblins.
Thanks to their sudden wealth the party could afford a suit of Shadow Armor for Melody. Its enchantments made the Halfling more comfortable about reentering the Nashkel Mines, the place where her connection to the Shadow Plane had previously seemed weakened.
Once more the companions stalked through the corridors. This time Melody's stealth did not fail her. The master of the mine was in his lair, surrounded by mostly skeletal minions and some kobolds.
Quayle summoned two skeleton warriors of his own. They managed to cut down some of the kobolds before the Half-Orc and his other servants found them out. A barrage of arrows, darts, daggers, and bullets then prevented the priest from casting any of his spells befor he fell, other than the summoning of a huge skeleton warrior, about twice as tall and broad as the skeleton warriors that Quayle had summoned. It nearly killed Kivan with a single blow.
It was clear that a straight melee battle was not going to end well for the party. Melody had Kivan, Shar-Teel, and Rasaad quaff one invisbility potion each, depleting her entire stock of said potions. She then ordered her companions to form a line that would be impenetrable for the skeletons. The Halfling positioned herself behind it. Mindless creatures, the undead could not understand that invisible beings were standing in their way. They just kept trying to close in on Melody. From this safe position she was able to slay the priest, and some of the skeletons (not the largest one).
She released an Elven prisoner, looted the priest's corpse and a chest containing valuables and correspondence suggesting a link between the iron crisis and the bandit plague (something to look into), and then she left with her companions.
Their business in the mines earned the party the status of local heroes in Nashkel, though there was also someone less sympathetic to their cause waiting for Melody, an assassin named Nimbul. Melody had the Amnian Guards make short work of him.
On his corpse she found a letter mentioning his job to kill Melody and an instruction to meet one Tranzig, who was said to be residing at Feldepost's. This Tranzig apparently knew the location of the bandit stronghold. Melody sought him out, hoping to extract some information from him, but he recognized her and he went hostile. It finally allowed Melody to get some value out of her pricey Dagger of Venom.
She felled the wizard and got the location of the bandit camp from a letter he had been carrying. But she was still confused: the same people that had arranged the iron crisis and the bandit plague were also the people who were paying cutthroats to kill her. Why?
That night she had a dark dream, in which she sensed an alien presence, not of the Prime Material Plane nor of the Shadow Plane. She was back in the Nashkel Mines. The presence did not show itself but it commanded her in a deep voice to stab the Half-Orc from the Nashkel Mines with a bone blade and so take whatever afterlife he had. Melody disobeyed. Unlike rancorous Kivan or bloodthirsty Shar-Teel, Melody had never got any satisfaction from killing. She was indifferent about the Half-Orc. Stabbing him for the sake of depriving him of his afterlife didn't appeal to her. She woke up the next day aware of a healing power. It was the second time that this happened. She spoke of it with Quayle, who hinted that she might have gained the favor of a deity. After this Melody didn't think much about the matter, knowing more urgent business, such as visiting the bandit stronghold, required her attention.
The party found the camp in the Wood of Sharp Teeth with the help of a bandit named Raiken, whom they told they wanted to join the bandits. The plan was gathering information about the bandits: numbers, names, leaders, locations. But soon after they arrived at the camp an ogre approached the companions to interrogate them. Kivan told Melody in a low voice that he was honor-bound to kill the oaf or die trying, for this was Tazok, his nemesis, his torturer and the slayer of his mate Deheriana. Melody was pleased that Kivan had managed to keep his cool for the moment. Before Tazok recognized the Elf, Shar-Teel picked a fight with the monster, supposedy to prove the party's worth.
However Kivan and Shar-Teel went a bit further than that, pelting Tazok with missile after missile until he could barely walk. It was fitting that a critical hit by Kivan felled the brute.
The downside of Kivan's revenge was that it caused the entire camp to turn hostile on the party. Thus their infiltration operation had failed. They had to get themselvs into safety against overwhelming odds. And any information they were to acquire had to come from letters or hostages they might take.
Fortunately, Quayle's prayers for sanctuary before the enemy were answered by his god.
Baravar Cloakshadow allowed his servant to retrieve important documents from a heavily guarded tent. According to these documents the orchestrators of the iron crisis and the bandit plague were the Iron Throne, a trade organization with a hidden basis of operations in Cloakwood.
When the companions wanted to leave the camp, Melody made a discovery that greatly upset her. Just as in the Nashkel Mines, a force she didn't understand apeared to be working against her, to undermine her link with the Plane of Shadow. This time it was not her stealth that failed, it was something more subtle. As she enveloped herself in shadows, she thought herself present at the camp in mind only, not in body. But apparently this was not true. Indeed her enemies could not see her (or the others who had been made invisible by Quayle), but they somehow sensed her. Led by a Black Talon commander, a warrior clad in full plate mail, they would follow her every move, and even surround her if she didn't watch out. Many thoughts crossed her mind. Were these specially trained warriors with true seeing skills? Did the enemy know of her Shadowdancing abilities? Was she even a true Shadowdancer in the first place? Was one of her companions a spy who had discovered her and snitched on her? (She dismissed that notion as Kivan and Shar-Teel had just slain the bandit leader, Rasaad was the most virtuous of her companions and besides her confidante, and Quayle had always been the first target of bandits anywhere whenever they were ambushed.)
Her emotions went from astonishment, to fear, to anger. She resented the people that had wanted her dead even when she was still in Candlekeep. But in more than ten tendays she had never taken the offensive. This time things were going to be different. She did not care what the Black Talon commander's motives were, why he had ended up as a bandit, if he had a wife or children. She did not need to kill him, but she decided she would anyway. In and out of the comfort of the shadows she stepped, stabbing her mark with every appearance she made and disappearing before her bewildered enemies could even aim there weapons at her, until he fell. The vemom of her dagger helped speed up the process.
She knew not what the consequences of this brash move would be. Would the witnesses think she had simply used a large amount of invisibility potions, or would they suspect there was more to Melody than that? The Halfling had no idea, but she did know she had made it clear that she was not going to let the enemy lead her like a lamb to the slaughter.
Retour en haut
). Moving on to Cythandria they didn't muck about, but just waited for her to produce her golems before blasting her. 
